


Case File: Shenanigans in Space

by Archivus



Series: Reports from Space [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Between Seasons 5 & 6, Gen, Shenanigans in space, space trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:26:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21876604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archivus/pseuds/Archivus
Summary: “Is that a cat? Why is there a cat with you?”“It was already here.”“Why would they imprison a cat?”“That’s not a cat. It’s a flerken.”ORSHIELD began their foray into space when they went looking for their missing engineer who was deep in cryosleep (supposedly). Led by Daisy Johnson, otherwise known as Quake, they sort of made themselves known throughout the galaxy, at least in the part they were currently travelling in. As luck would have it, they were always involved in mischief and mayhem, mostly unintentionally. This case file consisted of all the reports written by Agent Johnson (reluctantly, but she was the captain of the ship, so, she had to) on the shenanigans they partook in space.
Relationships: Agent Piper & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Series: Reports from Space [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1612480
Comments: 9
Kudos: 82





	1. Happenstance Circumstances

_She was lying on her right side, strapped to a makeshift stretcher. She could feel the sting of the cut on the left side of her neck. She pleaded, she cried, she screamed for him to stop. But it fell on deaf ears. Not even her friend’s cautionary reasoning that what he was doing could potentially paralyze her or destroy the world changed his mind. He was set to do what he thought was best and set to gamble on the uncertainty of the future, on her life. Besides, what was one person as compared to the world? It was worth it. No, it was not. Not in the slightest._

_The pain was excruciating, there was no anesthesia given. She would know. She could feel everything – the pain, the dripping blood, the cold tools he used, the movement of the inhibitor being pulled out roughly and most acutely, the crack of her broken heart at the betrayal of someone she thought of like a brother._

_She was trying to wrap her head over what had happened. The wound on her neck tingled painfully, her whole body was tense. She ought to be resting but her mind was too preoccupied to shut down. She startled and alarmed when she heard the knock on her door and his voice was calling her name again and again. The thump and the voice got louder and louder._

“Daisy. Wake up.”

She startled awake in cold sweat. Urgh, she hated sweating when not working out or fighting some baddies. Someone was trying to knock her door off its hinges, calling out her name.

“I’m up. Just a second.” She yawned and opened the door to her quarter and saw Piper in the hallway. “What is it?”

“We’re entering a new solar system in a couple hours, thought you might want to know and get ready.”

“Okay.”

Later, she showered and had breakfast or it could be lunch or dinner maybe. It didn’t matter which meal. The Zephyr used earth’s hours anyway. After telling Piper to catch some sleep, she skimmed through the logs of the last few hours and performed a weekly maintenance of the spacecraft. Detecting no anomalies, she relaxed at the lounge. When the beep from the console informed her that they were entering the solar system, Daisy ordered the scanner be activated.

They needed to get more supplies. The fuel was running low too. Who knew how long they’d cruised the space before they completed this mission. Besides, it would be nice to stand on terra firma again. The last time they landed somewhere was not a pleasant experience. It was hot, scorching really. Vapours, geysers and fire occasionally appeared, more like shot out from the ground. It was too close to the bright nebula to support any life forms except some fire-based organisms like a small fire-breathing chameleon, and dragons. The myths about those mythical creatures were true after all.

Apparently, they’d gotten a lead on Fitz’s whereabouts from a group of aliens they unintentionally helped (they initially planned to coerce them for some supplies) about a terran who may or may not resemble him, which led them to a fire planet. In the end, they were dragged into battle. Imagined their surprise when they realized that the enemy they were facing was none other than the Confederacy! That was bad, a really bad timing.

Fortunately, it was just a scouting ship. So, it didn’t really have the firing power that the newly reconfigured Zephyr One couldn’t handle. Along with their new ally, the Confederacy’s ship was outgunned, outmatched, outnumbered and outmaneuvered; thus, easily subdued. The alliance cleaned out the ship and disabled its tracker and communication systems before they reconfigured the system and towed it away.

The encounter with that alien group and the battle that followed also marked her as a person of interest to many people in space. If she was not careful, they might be in trouble – running away from being captured. Heck, she was pretty sure that her name was already in the database of the Confederacy’s most wanted when they blew up one of their flagships and commandeered another after the fiasco in Chicago.

The excursion before that was pretty much a disaster too. They were lucky though to be able to get as many supplies as they could before they were forced to flee courtesy of herself, Piper and Simmons. It was self-preservation. That planet’s inhabitants wanted to marry them off to the planet’s most promising males – and they all had tails! Just because they helped a boy from harm – who turned out to be the king. Go figured. The one time they did a good deed, it backfired.

They were already trapped in the castle when they found out that he wanted to gift his loyal subjects a consort each. No wonder they were pampered and treated nicely. In order to escape, they had to roughen up the guards as well as destroying parts of the castle and the city proper before they hopped on the Zephyr and vamoosed.

She didn’t even want to think about other incidents where they struggled to get themselves out of the quicksand-like slime pools or when they fled from a bunch of angry but highly intelligent monkeys because Daisy messed with their techs. Then, they had a skirmish with a stuck up green-skinned asshole who insulted Simmons’ intelligence. The scientist did not take it lightly when someone insulted her brain.

And let’s not talk about fight. Somehow, somewhere there were fights and Daisy would be at the centre of them, which usually ended up in trails of destructions. Mind you, most of them were not initiated by her. This led her to be called a menace because, well, she was menacing the space. Heck, the Confederacy spat her name like it was an oath – a damning one that was – and called her a space menace except Father Kasius – of course he was still stuck with her Destroyer of Worlds moniker just like his two despicable sons who unfortunately still alive in this timeline.

Yet, they were no near to finding Fitz. 

She was brought out of her musing a few hours later when the scanner beeped to announce that there was a space station and a planet a light year away. She then set to wake everybody up and be prepared for the visit. Let just hope that this one was friendly.

~~~~####~~~~

They saw the space station among a few huge asteroids. Hoping things to go smoothly, they docked at one of the grooves at the docking bay. They refueled and scavenged the place for something interesting. Fascinatingly, the people there were very friendly, until you did something that made them angry.

Fortunately, this time, it was not their fault, unlike a few incidents a few planets and stations away. However, as luck would have it, they were right in the middle of the area where the confrontation was taking place. So, obviously, they had to elbow and jostle some unsuspecting aliens to get to the Zephyr; and that did not make them happy. Unfortunately, right when they were almost reaching the exit, they witnessed young aliens were used and injured and trapped in the commotion.

They were agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They saved lives. They apprehended bad guys. So of course they just gotta help those kids, right? Umm, no, they didn’t really have to. They better got on with their mission. But those were children – well behaved cute little aliens – they couldn’t just leave and felt guilty later wondering whether the kids were fine or not.

And so they dove back into the battleground, saved the kids, treated their injuries, soothed their fears and returned them back to their parents, who thanked them profusely and undocked soon after that. Only to go to a planet nearby with a weird name. None of them remembered to pay for whatever they’d gotten at the space station. Oh well, it was somehow the way they survived all these months anyway.

They found out that the planet was beautiful and quite similar to earth. They did not have any problem to breathe. The fact that the gravity there was 5/6th of the earth’s, the team didn’t have any trouble moving around. In fact, it was quite easy as they felt lighter, faster and stronger too. So, they spent a few hours sightseeing and eating and window shopping. All was well on Planet San-i-taris. That trouble free hours however, did not last long.

There was a commotion in the city square. Armed guards rushed to the area. They managed to get far away from the center of the problem, except Davis. Unable to escape, he was caught and dragged to one of the vehicles the army came with along with a few others.

They didn’t have time to plan a rescue tactics. Daisy instructed Simmons to go back to the Zephyr and monitored the signals of their trackers as well as guarding the ship. Piper and Daisy hijacked one of the army vehicles by rendering the driver unconscious and followed the entourage of guards and prisoners.

It was almost an hour before the convoy slowed down and stopped in front of a massive gate. Behind the gate, there was a huge building built into the side of a mountain. And it was hot and smelled terribly similar like sulfur. There were a few smaller buildings scattered within the compound.

They drove straight to one of the smaller buildings, following another vehicle they were sure held no prisoners. It was a parking bay. In there, the agents could see numerous vehicles and ideas started formulated in their minds. After spending a few minutes hatching out a mad plan, Daisy and Piper slowly exited their ride and move stealthily towards the door they saw the guards entered. They also checked other vehicles for their availability to be hijacked in an instant. Whether they knew how to operate them was beside the point.

With Daisy using her power to check for any hostiles behind the door, they easily gained entrance and snuck into a room full of lockers. They took this chance to steal a couple uniforms and pretended to be one of the guards. They also managed to find a tablet that was useless anyway because they couldn’t read those alien letters. However, it did help in confirming Davis status. They saw mug shots of him and a few others as well as the cell he was going to be (albeit in alien numerical forms, but they’d look for that when they searched for the cell).

Luckily, the tracker in Davis’ watch was still emitting a signal. So, they followed it to one of the lowest levels of the compound they now knew was a prison. Thank goodness for elevators. They didn’t think they would be able to reach the high security cells that fast on staircases.

The lower they went the hotter the surrounding was. Of course it would be hot. They found out that they were in the middle of an active volcano! The elevator had a glass wall at the back. It was probably used to scare the inmates of how escape was impossible. They could clearly see hot, curling lava swishing in the pockets within the volcano. Let’s hope it did not vomit those liquid flames anytime soon. A volcano eruption was not something they wanted to experience. They had dealt enough with flame, what with escaping fire-breathing animals and dragons, to last them a lifetime. Piper in particular learned it the hard way to never pet a baby dragon unless you wanted to be roasted by its mama.

Once they were out of the elevator, they moved silently along the cavern-like hallways. Piper saw a signage on the wall that resembled a part of the letters they were sure was Davis’ cell. They crosschecked it with the signal of his tracker. It was a match. Obviously, they followed it and indeed, Davis was imprisoned in one of the cells there. It took a few minutes with Daisy’s power manipulation and the door was unlocked. However, it seemed that Davis was not alone in that wing. There was a cat with him.

“Is that a cat? Why is there a cat with you?”

“It was already here.”

“Why would they imprison a cat?”

“That’s not a cat. It’s a flerken.”

That startled them and as a default reflex, they took their guns and aimed at the voice. In the cell opposite Davis’ was another prisoner.

“What’s a flerken?”

“A species of alien.”

“And what and who are you?”

“I’m Lexus. This is Magda. We’re Inhumans.”

“You’re what?” Daisy asked steadily, internally though, she was stunned.

“Inhumans. From Attilan.”

“Where the heck is Attilan?”

“On the moon of planet Earth.”

“That’s impossible. You cannot breathe on the moon.”

“There was a blue area there where our city is. It’s a long story.” They said after seeing the disbelief on their faces. “Just help us escape, please.”

“Okay. What three more people eh,” she sighed. She didn’t have time to dilly dally. They needed to get out of there quickly. If the couple harmed them, Daisy would just quake them.

So, that was how they found themselves creeping quietly through the corridors towards the elevator. Letting out a breath of relief that nobody was in and near the elevator, they quickly entered and rode it up to one floor below their entry point.

Unknown to them, the prison’s security team was informed of the breach and was already waiting for them to emerge. When Daisy sensed them running towards their way, they debated whether to quake and break or to find a place to hide and then slipped out of the building undetected. The latter choice was out of the question because the alarm blared off soon after. Confrontation with the prison guards was inevitable. It was now the time to fight their way out forcefully. Hence, a full on fight ensued.

They were shot at from many directions. All they could do was shoot back. Daisy was busy putting up a shield around them and occasionally sent shockwaves toward the guards. It was madness. But they managed to move inch by slowly gained inch to the door they used earlier. Once they were all inside the parking bay, Daisy unleashed her power, sending the guards flying and destroyed the lobby in the process.

In that moment of panic and confusion, they took off in one of the rides they hijacked from the building. But not before Daisy sent a powerful enough vibration that collapsed parts of the building and the parking bay. The enormous gate also received the same fate and the six of them ran towards the sunset, which happened to be in the direction of the place they stashed the Zephyr.

At the same time, they were trying to contact Simmons but were unsuccessful. What could have happened to her? Why wouldn’t she answer them?

“Don’t tell me she was captured too? This sucks! We have had too many rescue missions over the years. Dammit!”

The team feared for her and drove faster, hoping Simmons was all right.

~~~~####~~~~

Meanwhile, Simmons was thrown into a very unsanitary cell in a dungeon of the palace and muttering unintelligibly to herself. Panic was setting in, coupled with her frustration with everything, she kicked the bed. Only to backfire on her as her foot stung.

‘Damnation! This is not good. Daisy and Piper were off saving Davis. How the heck would they know where the hell I am?’

After a while of ranting, she calmed down and started to process her situation. It was during this contemplation that she remembered about the buckle of her belt. Daisy designed and programmed it as a tracker and a communication device. She just hoped that nothing hindered the transmission and got straight to contact the team. Hopefully, help would be coming soon.


	2. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Simmons, a little distraction would be perfect now.”
> 
> “How do I distract these idiots?”
> 
> “I don’t know. Think of something.”
> 
> “I’m a bit stressed out. I can’t really think creatively at the moment.”
> 
> “Just talk their ears off with something science-y.”
> 
> “Huh, science talk. I can do that. What if that doesn’t work?”
> 
> “Then, ask them questions. Interrogate them discreetly. Find information or just talk nonsense.”
> 
> “Basically, anything.”
> 
> “Yep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i decided to separate this from the previous chapter.

While on the run, they tried to contact Simmons but were unsuccessful. However, the biochemist managed to leave a message that she was captured and brought to the palace. They must have not searched her thoroughly then. So, during the ride, they planned her rescue ops.

According to Lexus and Magda, the palace was heavily guarded. The tyrant king was a paranoid asshole. The crown prince was a dick. The other prince was too deep in his research to bother with what was happening in the world. The princess however was soft spoken and compassionate. She even tried to help the couple but was vetoed by her brother and father. They decided to return to the Zephyr One and regrouped, washed up and grabbed a few stuff they needed for the op.

Then, they were off commencing _Operation: Saving Simmons_ by infiltrating the palace. They entered the city at night, hiding among the shadows. Magda, who knew the layout of the place (because she was detained there before she was sent to the volcanic prison), led the way. Daisy was right behind her along with the flerken that insisted to follow her. Lexus was on the lookout in their getaway ride. Davis and Piper were their backup and they were tasked to scout the perimeter.

Sneaking through the massive compound was not as difficult as she thought but the occasional appearances of the palace guards in their path were pretty much heart stopping moments. When they reached the dungeon, they knew that they got their work cut out for them. Guards were everywhere. How were they going to get in, let alone smuggled Simmons out?

Observing the guards, they tried to assess a quick way in and out, without attracting any attention. The only way they could do that was probably by pretending to be one of the guards. The opportunity came when they saw a guard heading toward their hiding spot. So, Daisy clocked him on the head, pilfered his uniform and hid him in the bushes.

As luck would have it, right after she put it on, they were approached by another guard – a highly skilled one. And so they fought until a whispered alarmed voice that sounded feminine stopped them.

The girl showed herself and the guard immediately relaxed his fighting stance but never let his guard down. When Magda saw her, she let out a gasp. Apparently, the princess was out playing savior tonight. Both the princess and the guard recognized Magda and they began to talk – why was she here, how did she escape the prison.

“This is Quake. She saved me and Lexus from the prison.”

“Quake? Why is that name sound familiar?”

“Hold on. Are you saying that she is Quake? The one the Confederacy called the Space Menace?”

“They call me what?”

“The Space Menace.”

“That was not as bad as the other one, I guess.”

“What’s the other name?”

“Oh, nothing important. But I was once called _Destroyer of Worlds_.”

“…”

“So, you destroyed worlds?”

“Uh…nope.”

“Then, why did they call Destroyer of Worlds?”

“Well, these people loved to give you names. I’m used to it.” After a pause, she sighed. “Anyway, so, what are we going to do to save Simmons?”

“Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do.” The guard started. They then devised a plan to get Simmons out of the dungeon.

Their initial plan was not easy to carry out. Luckily, it came with an unexpected help. However, with both new allies in the mix, it could probably be easier to execute or it could potentially be a lot more difficult. While waiting for the perfect time to infiltrate the dungeon, they made small talk with each other.

The princess told them about her father’s and brother’s despicable deeds. One of them was prostitution. According to the princess, any woman captured would go through a selection process where the king and the crown prince would walk along the line formed by these beauties and picked any one they desired. These women would then be pampered and cleaned and presented to them in their chambers. If both father and son liked them, their lives would be spared – until both men were bored with them and wanted another.

Some of the captures would be gifted to the royal’s favourite warriors or government officials. The others would then be sold to a trading company that handled their inhumane business affairs. This did not only affect women, they also had a few men as well. Lexus and Magda were lucky they did not get sold, mainly due to the interference of the princess. However, even her highness couldn’t save all.

The moment for them to enter the dungeon came with the change of guards. The princess’ bodyguard – Daisy called him Al, his alien name was just too alien, her human tongue couldn’t pronounce it right – and Daisy went in and searched for the cell that held Simmons. What they saw inside sickened them. There were a number of prisoners, gender notwithstanding as well as some children.

Pressing for time, they looked frantically into each cell and felt relieved when they found Simmons in one of them – pacing in her cell. For a planet that had the technology to build spaceships, their lockup and security were pretty medieval. With just a little vibration, Daisy opened the door. They were on the verge of escape when the king and his crown prince arrived, looking very upset. Al cursed. They were not supposed to come down here that night. The selection was supposed to be tomorrow.

Confrontation was unavoidable. The royals saw them and somehow recognized Daisy. Most probably, the news of the prison break had reached their ears. That might be the reason they looked angry.

Later on, they found out that prisoners escaped when she blew up the prison in the volcano. So, that was why they were pissed.

Discretion was no longer their priority as escape no matter what just climbed up to the top spot. So, through the comms, Daisy told Piper, Davis and Magda to run to their ride and be ready to get the hell out of Dodge. Daisy told them that they could be 10 to 15 minutes away, but if they didn’t make it within that timeframe, they must go back to the Zephyr. If they were spotted, they were to leave immediately. Any protests were swiftly drowned by Daisy using her rarely used boss-voice.

That left Daisy, Simmons and surprisingly, the cat – which if she was not mistaken was called the flerken – faced against the tyrants. With a little very subtle nod and a wink toward the princess and her bodyguard, Daisy handed the cat to Simmons and told her to distract the despicable monarchs.

“Simmons, a little distraction would be perfect now.”

“How do I distract these idiots?”

“I don’t know. Think of something.”

“I’m a bit stressed out. I can’t really think creatively at the moment.”

“Just talk their ears off with something science-y.”

“Huh, science talk. I can do that. What if that doesn’t work?”

“Then, ask them questions. Interrogate them discreetly. Find information or just talk nonsense.”

“Basically, anything.”

“Yep.”

While Simmons was trying to bleed the men’s eardrums by talking science and asking questions upon questions, Daisy was concentrating on her power on the frequency of the non-living things around her. She then stepped in front of them and unleashed her power. The effect of her vibration ability was something no one ever thought possible. Yes, she turned guns and even aliens to dust (unintentional because she was under attack and they were using lasers). However, this time around, she showcased to some powerful people in space just what she was capable of.

The guns, any weapons and armors on the aliens turned to nothing. She even managed to clear the whole area where they were standing. In fact, the whole dungeon was gone. Not collapsed or simply destroyed. It was gone. Decimated to ashes. That incredible feat left everyone’s jaws to drop as they were too stunned, even Daisy herself.

“Well, that’s something new.”

“But, it’s exhausting and makes me hungry.”

“I supposed using that level of power feeds more on your energy.”

“That makes sense. But, now would be perfect to run.”

The sounds of moving feet and whispers brought their attentions to the other prisoners who were trying to escape.

“Guards! Don’t let anyone escape. And those two. Get them. Dead or alive. I don’t care!”

Ordering his palace guards to round them all up, the king and prince became even angrier when Daisy quaked them all. Some hit their heads and fell unconscious. Daisy continued to fight the guards as to give more time for the others to escape.

At one time, all guards were knocked out and the royals became desperate. More and more guards appeared and the humans had had enough. Even the cat had enough too. It was very shocking as they did not expect that. The cat alien somehow produced tentacles from inside its mouth and swallowed the king. They were all speechless, blinking rapidly in disbelief as they were too stunned for the second time that night.

The prince let out a few very colorful expletives and threw in a few threats toward them in between swearing and raging. Meanwhile, they found themselves surrounded by the newly arrived palace guards, whom they guessed saw the demise of their king. Taking a life was never a good thing – most of the time, but the tyrant deserved it.

The flerken seemed to have a different idea or maybe it was just feeling disgusted when he expelled the king, still alive but coated in yucky goo. And again, they were all dumbfounded. Daisy and Simmons took that moment to escape barely unnoticed as everybody else was focused on the king. So, they ran.

Their escape however, was not without destruction. If they reached a dead end, Daisy would just blow them all up. Besides, they agreed that it was a waste of time to backtrack their steps or to be sneaky trying to find another way because the whole palace already knew there were there anyway. Plus, when she had to, Daisy would just quake some guards that came close.

In the end, they escaped and rendezvoused with the others outside the palace right on time. Then, they were off to the Zephyr and left the planet at once, dragging along the cat and the Inhumans, vowing never to return.

~~~~####~~~~

Meanwhile, at the palace, the king and the crown prince were livid. They not only lost their precious commodity but their dignity suffered too. Well, screaming like banshees throwing tantrums was not going to repair that. Having parts of their palace destroyed was another matter of contempt toward the one called The Space Menace.

From that day onward, they swore to bring her and her partners in crime to justice. Thus, began their pitiful attempts to capture Quake, the notorious terran, whom even had the Confederacy after her tail. Wanted posters of hers (they only managed to capture her picture clearly) were displayed all over the planet and among the space community in that corner of the galaxy. Heck, the king even forbade the word _quake_ spoken within his hearing distance.

The princess and her bodyguard were secretly happy to have helped Quake freed all prisoners in the dungeon. They were also trying to help those who escaped to hide from the clutches of their tyranny king and crown prince. When they heard of what happened at the volcanic prison, they admired Quake and her friends a bit more while at the same time, they hoped that there was no dangerous criminals escaped the penitentiary. 

In the meantime, they’d just had to avoid the male members of her family lest she gave away her role in that fiasco. Now, she just needed to think of a list of creative means to sabotage more of her father’s and brother’s dirty business affairs.


	3. The Pursuit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were in the middle of nowhere with no sign of celestial bodies in a few light years perimeter except a beautiful comet moving next to them, when something was detected on the scanner. All four of them scrambled to the bridge, eyes focused on the screens. It seemed that the scanner had picked up a mechanical signal nearby. There could be a spaceship or metallic space rocks nearby. They’d be very happy to encounter space rocks than another spaceship. It was less than 48 hours since they escaped from the chase with one of the Confederacy’s smaller spaceships and let’s not mentioned their other enemy.

“Father.”

“Yes, son. What do you have?”

“We managed to recover some footage from the prison.”

“And?”

“We confirmed that it was the same person. The same kind of weapon used – invisible, the same impact.”

“Do we have any information on this imbecile?”

“It looked like they docked on the space station prior to landing here. They left without paying for fuel and the merchandise. We got a very clear footage of the one who seems to be the leader.”

“The Menace?”

“Yes, father.”

“So, you found nothing about them?”

“Not them. Her.”

“Elaborate.”

“Her name is Quake. She is on the most wanted list on the Confederacy’s database.”

“The Confederacy? Hmmm…this is interesting. So, this bloody Quake gets the nerve to mess with an organization as powerful and ruthless as the Confederacy.”

“Yes, for unknown charge. But I heard rumors that some of their ships were either destroyed or taken over lately. That could be why. They called her The Space Menace.”

“So, this Quake is a pirate.”

“Probably. There’s more. Her name is also on the wanted lists in some other solar systems’ databases. It seems like she and her friends left destruction wherever they go. Reports said that they destroyed the palace and the whole city on a planet in a solar system a few light years away from here. There were also some stations that fell victim to them. One was left a sea of debris in space.”

“So, they are known criminals.”

“Not only that, they never pay for anything, insisting to have things on the house.”

“A menace, a destroyer and a pirate.”

“It’s funny you that you used that word.” The king raised his eyebrows.

“There was another rumor though it was only among the Kree associated with the Confederacy. Quake was also called Destroyer of Worlds.”

“So, that is what she does. Creates chaos, takes whatever she wants and leaves destruction in her wake.”

“It seems like it.”

“She’s dangerous.”

“Indeed. In fact, I just received a report from one of our bases of operation. A group like hers just dismantled the whole thing. This is the third one. All commodities and resources were gone. There were also nasty words spreading about us by those they stole from us.”

“They are rubbing it in our faces and toying with our dignity! How dare them. Go after them. I want them captured or killed. I don’t care. Just bring me her head!”

“Yes, father.”

“And son, don’t come back before you do. Understood?”

“Absolutely.”

~~~~####~~~~

“Hey Simmons, give us a hand here.” Simmons sauntered into the lounge to a scene of her teammates, Lexus and Magda decorating a tree. Even the cat had itself draped on the couch like a sovereign looking over her subjects doing grunt jobs.

“Why are you decorating a tree? Besides, where did you get that?”

“Found it in the storage with boxes of decorations. Anyway, what do you mean why? It’s Christmas. We have to have a Christmas tree.”

“It’s that time of the year already? I don’t even realise that.” She was kind of surprised by how fast the time went by, and yet they still didn’t have any clue of Fitz’s whereabouts. They said that there was no time in space, but that was what made it harder for her. All this time she had on her hands made her missed Fitz a lot more. She worried about him. Not knowing where and how he was doing was driving her crazy.

This whole situation made her acted horribly toward the others. All she could think about was finding her husband. Daisy was being very understanding. No matter how Simmons behaved during this journey, she took her words and actions in her stride. She never questioned her rash attitude and for that Simmons was grateful to have such a good friend.

She understood now that this must have been how Daisy felt while looking for Coulson’s cure. Yet, not once she saw her friend lost her temper that she took it on others, no matter how bad the rest of them treated her – she included. And for that, she felt guilty. She didn’t know how to apologize for her mind was so messy and she felt so numbed these past months that she couldn’t really think clearly.

Davis and Piper did not say anything. They just followed whatever they decided. Well, more like what Daisy told them. Admittedly, those two never said ‘no’ to the Inhuman no matter how bizarre the things she told them to do were. It was astonishing to see how she had grown from an anti-organization hacker into this reluctant superhero with great leadership qualities. She was always amazed how Daisy could bounce back stronger after the ordeals she had gone through and still showed compassion and understanding to other people.

Vowing to herself that she would find the right words and time to apologize to her best friend, she decided to join the others in decorating the tree for Christmas. Even in space, they followed earth’s time. It was easier that way. Besides, it didn’t hurt to have a little festive mood on the Zephyr.

The team was having a great time making homemade decorations that Daisy insisted on making. When asked why they had to do that when there were boxes of those things around, she answered simply – it was tradition. Knowing her time at the orphanage and foster homes, she obliged her. Furthermore, this was a nice thing to do to pass the time.

They were in the middle of nowhere with no sign of celestial bodies in a few light years perimeter except a beautiful comet moving next to them, when something was detected on the scanner. All of them scrambled to the bridge, eyes focused on the screens. It seemed that the scanner had picked up a mechanical signal nearby. There could be a spaceship or metallic space rocks nearby. They’d be very happy to encounter space rocks than another spaceship. It was less than 48 hours since they escaped from the chase with one of the Confederacy’s smaller spaceships and let’s not mentioned their other enemy.

Unfortunately their hope was dashed. To make matter worse, it was not just any spaceship. It was the one that had been chasing after them since they left planet San-i-taris. They had a few close calls the past few weeks. Huh, the prince was not one to give up that easily. It was okay to admire the prince’s tenacity but right now, they needed to get away.

“Uh oh, that’s Prince Douchebag. We better get the hell out of here.”

The team strapped themselves in the seats, and Davis put the Zephyr on a faster mode. His ship was much bigger and definitely had more offensive weapons than the Zephyr. In addition, there were only six of them against an unknown number of thugs on-board the enemy’s vessel. They hoped to outrun the prince without using the jump drive. They still had a long way to go before they went home. Those jumps were critical. What with the Confederacy was also on their tail.

The chase had been going on for hours now. They were sure that the prince still had them in his scanner. They needed to find something to hide from their pursuer – a planet, a moon, an asteroid or even a comet. Anything that could help them stayed hidden or at least camouflaged the Zephyr from any radar or scanner long enough until the prince was no longer in their vicinity. They should have just stayed near the comet. However, the prince was gaining on them.

“This is bad. What do we do?”

“I cannot believe I’m saying this, but Piper’s right. This is bad. We can’t go on running like this. It’s tiring and fuel consuming. I’m very sure the Zephyr could not outrun them.” Those two could still bicker playfully in times like this. Well, it was good for teamwork and to reduce tension. Besides, this was not the first time they were being pursued.

“Try to find anything we can hide behind.”

“That’s it. Simmons, you’re brilliant. Okay, here’s what we do. We find something like a rock or moons, anything that can hide us from the prince, then, turn off everything except cloaking.”

“Let’s just hope the cloaking would really help us stayed cloaked.”

As luck with have it, they did found a large asteroid a few light years away and dashed behind it, killing the engine and prayed to be undetected. It was a success. They saw the prince’s spaceship zoomed pass the rock and after waited for half an hour (just enough time for the prince to be far from them), they restarted the Zephyr and steered on a different course from their pursuer.

All was well and they did manage to get a few hours of well rested nap, though their trouble-free voyage was interrupted by a ring of asteroids and a storm – in space! Being in the midst of space rocks inside the eye of a magnetic stormcloud was not good for the health of their plane. They never knew that there could be a storm in the vacuum of space. There must be a gravitational pull from a planet or a moon nearby that contributed to this.

They needed to get out of the rocky sector or risked damaging the Zephyr. That vessel had taken too many hits lately that they were not going to risk it more with asteroids. They were right, there was a moon nearby and a planet further away. So, they had Davis piloted the plane skillfully through the rocks toward their soon to be shelter.

“Simmons, check the moon’s atmosphere. Magda, work with her.”

“On it.”

“Piper, Lexus, you two scan the surface. Find anywhere we could land safely and suitable to shelter the Zephyr. We don’t know if the rocks would hit the moon.”

“Right on it, boss.”

Meanwhile, Daisy was keeping her eyes on the readings that told her the health of the Zephyr. When Simmons confirmed that the atmosphere resembled earth with a bit excess on the oxygen rate, and Piper found a suitable spot for them to take shelter from the storm, Daisy upped the protective shield they installed on the exterior of the Zephyr to protect it from the force of entering atmospheres and Davis prepared to land. They had Magda observed the storm and Lexus was tasked with the radar and scanner. The flerken was being a bossy cat, plopping itself on Daisy’s lap.

Their landing was successful. Scanning the perimeter for unwanted surprises, the team prepared to anchor the Zephyr to the ground. They did not want to risk to be blown away if the storm got bigger and reached the surface. Giant metal hooks were lowered and secured as deep underground as they could. Simmons further checked the reading on the atmospheric properties of the moon, in case they had to go out of the vessel.

“Is everyone okay?” Affirmation was given by every crew including the cat.

“Alright. Have we done all preliminary readings?” When all of them nodded, Daisy continued. “Give me sitrep. Stat. Simmons.”

“As I mentioned earlier, the atmosphere is similar to earth, but with a bit more oxygen in the air. Much like on San-i-taris. The plus side is that there is not a single trace of pollution here. That probably contributes to the richer air on the surface.”

“So, it is safe to breathe out there. Good to know. Magda?”

“From the reading transferred from the hooks, the ground is mostly soil that is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It also has calcium, magnesium and sulphur in abundant.”

“That makes the soil here perfect for agriculture.”

“Oh, we need to map this place on our chart. Further research might be done to see if earthlings could survive here. If things get too dire on earth, who knows maybe we could migrate here.”

The others nodded in agreement.

“What about the gravity?”

“The gravity is just a tiny bit less than San-i-taris.”

“How much lighter?”

“Enough that we shouldn’t have any trouble moving out there. In fact, we’d find it easier. We’d be lighter and faster but would still stand firm on the ground.”

“Good. Anything else?” Magda shook her head. So, Daisy moved on to Lexus.

“The scanners don’t pick up any machines or living things nearby. However, it does sense breathing beings five miles to the north and eight miles southeast of our location. That could be animals or inhabitants of this planet. This place could also be a moon though as it looked to be orbiting a planet right out of the narrow ring of the space rocks.”

“Probably. It’s daylight here. There must be a star somewhere in the middle of this solar system.”

“And if there is, we better not encounter any inhabitants of this rock.”

“Yup. Don’t want any more troubles.”

That was exactly what all of them hoped. The whole journey was full of troubles and unexpected encounters that usually ended up in them fleeing (without paying) or winning and milked their so-called victims of their possessions (mainly supplies) and then zoomed out of there like the devil was on their tails. Well, maybe they were. Just looked at their current situation. On the run from diabolical tyranny monarchs that ruled the whole of a solar system and a space criminal organisation that had far-reaching influence.

They were lucky that the storm did not reach the surface of the moon. While out of the Zephyr, getting samples and noting information in their archive, they found some rare gems and a few other things they found interesting. They also checked whether the water was safe or not. Finding it safe, they filled up one of their water tanks and started its treatment. It won’t do to use contaminated water, so they needed to take precaution.

However, their tranquil jaunt was interrupted by the arrival of a spaceship. Not just any spaceship. It was the prince’s. Apparently, the prince’s route converged with theirs and since the storm was getting worse out there, they too decided to land on the moon. Luckily, the Zephyr was totally hidden. Unfortunately, it would be another half day until the storm left the area.

Hours gone by and Daisy had an idea to stall their princely shadow from pursuing them when they took off later. After debating the pros and cons of their plan, everyone was onboard with it.

Spying on the San-i-tarisians was easy. They were agents of an intelligence agency. They found out that their enemy would be heading out on the first light the next day. So, they proceeded with their plan.

“Daisy, there is nobody on the spaceship. You can move in.”

With Simmons in their ears, Daisy and Piper sneaked into the prince’s spacecraft. Their task was to plant a virus in the ship’s system. Besides, they also planned to sabotage the tech and the ship’s systems so that they’d be stranded on the moon for a while after the storm.

“Guys, be on the look out for the thugs’ locations at all times. I’ll handle the prince if things come to blows.”

“Roger that.” Lexus, Magda and Davis immediately got into positions. They were to be their eyes and ears on the San-i-tarisian who were lazing around the campfire.

The mission was a success and they left the enemy’s territory and returned to the Zephyr for a good night rest.

The next morning, the crew of the Zephyr One got ready to leave the moon before sunlight as the space was now cleared of any storm inducing clouds. But first, they had to venture out for a recon mission on the San-i-tarisians. Thank goodness they decided to check on the enemy camp because they found the prince’s underlings moving around near their shelter. Apparently, the sound of the Zephyr’s engine penetrated the quietness of the dawn.

Knowing that there was nothing they could do but to confront the San-i-tarisians, Daisy instructed Davis and Simmons to prepare for take-off. Piper was to make sure the perimeter had no more bogeys skulking around. Meanwhile, she herself along with Lexus and Magda would hold off the prince’s henchmen.

And so, they lured the unsuspecting thugs nearer to their own vessel, conked them out using icers and when more of them came out to fight, the trio used everything they could – branches, rocks and even some unconscious henchmen were made as shield. But most of all, they used their powers.

Daisy just wanted to finish this stupid engagement and ran far away from the prince. She was kinda tired of running. So, she quaked and quaked and sometimes disassembled weapons. Once in a while, she kicked their asses. Oh the satisfaction of trashing people mindlessly.

Lexus worked really well with Magda. He could open a portal at will and moved anything through it. The San-i-tarisians didn’t even see him coming. Magda on the other hand was having the time of her life. She was bashing the aliens with something that looked like a pan and a metal baseball bat, fully utilizing her ability that could turn anything into metal.

Soon, there were fewer minions for the prince to rely on. That was when he sort of realised the commotion outside his vessel. The moment he saw Daisy, he was immediately enraged and ordered his remaining men to attack her. But with the other Inhumans nearby, the underlings were occupied. Hence, the prince’s laughable attempt to hit her. Daisy acknowledged that he was a pretty good fighter, but she was better and faster. Besides, she had power.

Luckily for the prince, Daisy did not use her power, at all. She was really annoyed with him and his pursuits. So, she took her time in bashing and trashing him as much as she wanted. At the same time, baiting him to blow his top that resulted in him losing his coordination and began to punch and kick aimlessly. He became even more livid when not a single hit reached the Inhuman. Taking pity on him, Daisy jumped and trapped his head between her thighs. She twisted and lowered down her head and hands and slammed him to the ground.

“You infernal menace! A pesky terran. How dare you treat the crown prince of San-i-taris without respect!” he spat rudely.

“As if you ever show any respect to anyone.” She scoffed and prodded her foot on his back. “It’s been such a displeasure meeting you. So long prince, till we meet never. Or I’ll end you.” It was delivered menacingly cold that caused the prince and the two Inhumans too stunned to react.

Then, she took out her icer and shot him into oblivion.

“That’s it. Let’s go.”

And so they left the moon but not before helping themselves to some fuel. When the prince and his underlings woke up, the Zephyr was already a few light years away. His chase was put on hold as they were stranded because the team messed with his ship. His roar of anger was said to have reached the inhabitants of the moon that prompted them to pay him a visit. Thus, prolonged his stay on the moon. All in all, they would no longer have the prince on their tail – for a while.

However, it seemed that their dates with their pursuers were something ongoing. Out of the magnetic stormcloud area, they clashed head on with the Confederacy. They managed to outrun the prince but not the Confederacy. Luckily, it was not the flagship. Just one of their smaller recon teams. Thus, a space chase ensued. After a while and a few turrets of laser shots, the team had had enough and they were really tired. Therefore, they decided to fight back instead of running.

They had an epic space battle with lasers and bomb blasts and machine guns that fired inverted bullets that exploded upon impact. With skills and sheer luck, the Confederacy ship was struck down. Decided to keep on firing on the enemy’s ship, they went with the big gun: an atomic missile. Piper who was in charge of guns was aiming right at the ship, fingers twitching awaiting the signal from Daisy. In the meantime, the other Inhumans were busy gunning down the Confederacy’s vessel so that they didn’t have the chance to regroup.

Noting the incoming comet on the monitor, Daisy calculated the timing for her plan to really work.

“Daisy? Any minute now.”

“Not yet.”

“What exactly are we waiting for?”

“Yeah. We might have used up all bullets and energy reserves for all these fires.”

“We’re waiting for the comet. Make sure you push the button when the comet is right behind them. 45 seconds Piper. On my mark.”

“On it.”

“Now!”

When the comet was right behind the Confederacy’s spacecraft, Piper pushed the button that released the missile. They held their breath waiting for it to hit its target. They hollered joyously when the target exploded into space dust and the missile also rammed into the head of the passing comet, causing it to burst spectacularly and nothing was left behind except crystals of ice floating in the vacuum of space imitating the falling snow.

“Well, look at that. There is snow falling in space.”

“Ah, of course. Comets are mostly made up of gas, dust and ice.”

“So, those are ice crystals?”

“Yep.”

“Ain’t it beautiful?”

The team stood there admiring the view. Well, they may not be home for Christmas, but here they do have people to celebrate it with. Plus, they get to witness the beauty of the aftermath of a bursting comet. Life could not get any better than that.

If one looked closely, the leftover ice crystals did look like a Christmas tree lying horizontally. And Piper did not let that picturesque view go just like that. She took pictures and videos. They had Christmas dinner and opened presents before they went to bed, ready to jump on the next day near the coordinate they heard from the chatter of the Confederacy’s recon ship they hacked before they blew it up into icy smithereens – about a terran-like male survivor of a spaceship that was destroyed a few months ago.

All in all, it was a memorable celebration the Zephyr had ever had.

“Merry Christmas everyone.”

“Merry Christmas.”

And the crew of the Zephyr One greeted one another and dreamed of better tomorrows, leaving Daisy as the first watch at the helm.


	4. Peaceful Time…It Never Lasts

This was unexpected. Jemma Simmons did not anticipate their excursion to come to this. They were having such a great time for the two days they visited this place. They even heard rumors of someone that might help their quest in finding Fitz. She especially was looking forward to that, until this happened.

“Where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“The artifact.”

“What artifact?”

“The one in your possession.”

She had no idea what the man was asking. Neither did the others. Even the cat looked perplexed. They had been on the run for many weeks and there was no artifact found or looted during those weeks that she remembered. Maybe if he delineated the artifact to them, they may know where it was. Not that they would simply hand it over to him. If someone wanted it so badly that they forced the team into this situation, it must be very valuable.

“I don’t recall any artifact on our ship.”

“You got it at the arcade.”

Okay. So, they were looking for something they recently got here. But still, she had no idea what that was.

“Hand it over to us and we’ll let you go unharmed.”

Right…As if it was that easy. The years Jemma Simmons spent as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent taught her not to believe a word this man said.

~~~~####~~~~

**_Two days ago_ **

_Beep beep._

"The radar detected a moving entity a couple light years ahead of us."

"Do we know what kind?"

"I'm not sure. I'm gonna turn on the in-depth scanner."

They were perplexed when both machine-like and organic materials were detected on the scanner. And a lot of breathing beings.

"It's not the prince or the Confederacy."

"Thank goodness. I have had enough of them."

"But we're not out of the wood yet. We don't know what that is. It could be an even more terrifying unknown foe." Magda cautioned while pointing toward the monitor.

"For once, I hope it is either an ally or a neutral group."

"Whatever that is, it's enormous. Almost the size of a dwarf planet with weird shape and proportions.”

They studied the information that appeared on the monitor. Worry and anticipation enveloped the team.

"But its movement is unlike a planet. See here-" Lexus followed the entity on the scanner. "-a planet does not move like that. It is consistent and follows its orbit. This one moves more like a spaceship."

"Oh dear. A giant spaceship. If that is a new enemy, then, we're doomed."

"C'mon Simmons, it might not. Think positive. Perhaps we could get a clue to finding Fitz from them. After all, we did jump to this sector. That intel we hacked from the Confederacy might be true after all."

"I hope so." They did not have any other intel regarding Fitz's fate. They were hopeful that whoever on that gigantic thing could provide a little insight to their quest. Simmons was getting more subdued after months of searching with no results. Every clue they came by was useless. The others were worried about her.

When they moved nearer to the entity, all they could do was hoped and prayed that the other party was friendly. Nevertheless, they also prepared to jump at a moment's notice in case they were proven wrong.

Half a light year away from the supposed spaceship, their communication system crackled as someone was trying to establish a two-way communication channel. Once Daisy approved of it, an authoritative voice spoke.

"Unknown vessel. You are approaching Metrofulus. Identify yourseIf.

"This is Zephyr One. What exactly is Metrofulus?"

"We are a moving city in the cosmos.” Or a mammoth movable space station or a huge starship, Simmons thought that that was more likely.

“If you wish to visit our city, we will direct you to the docking bay. If you wish to pass by, we wish you a safe trip.”

"Do we have the city's warranty that no harm would come to our vessel and crew if we dock on Metrofulus?"

"Indeed you have, Captain. We gave you our words that your safety on Metrofulus is our top priority and no harm shall befall you as long as you do not break any of our rules."

The crew on the Z1 looked at each other, totally communicating using their eyes and facial expressions what they thought about the invitation and what they should do. After they collectively agreed to step foot on the city, Daisy relayed their decision to the person on the other side of the channel.

When they arrived at the cosmos city, they were overwhelmed with its breathtaking scenery and their advancement in science as well as its lavishness in almost everything they saw. It was like nothing they had ever been to. The architectural quality and the exclusivity the city portrayed at every establishment left them in awe. The landscape was amazing that they almost forgot that everything was artificial.

Despite her feeling miserable and worried for Fitz, Jemma could not help but felt excited to explore the place. The rest of the team also showed such enthusiasm at the chance to explore Metrofulus. Well, nobody could fault them for that – it was a cosmos city, something they never heard of before. So, they spent the entire day just walking around the place and sightseeing.

Usually when they docked or landed somewhere, they just took whatever they wanted like the pirates they were accused of being. This time around, they made a historical feat – they paid for everything!

Daisy explained that it was the least they could do to show their appreciation for the invitation to visit the city. Besides, the Zephyr could never win against it. Plus, they’d never knew who they might encounter there – an ally (that would be a good thing), a stranger or worse, an enemy (Jemma even saw Daisy knocked on the wooden panel when she uttered that word). Therefore, it was better to keep a low profile and not create troubles.

It was very mature of her best friend to say that. Something she rarely showed on this trip – regarding keeping everything on the lowkey. Jemma also realized that Daisy did seem relaxed. Too relax. In fact, she moved a lot slower and a little less perky than usual. If that was what she meant by lowkey, then, they may have a trouble free excursion on the floating city after all. 

However, there was something niggling at the back of her mind. A question of how did they pay for all this? They had no money. Well, they sort of did if they sold some stuff they had gotten these past months – most were looted possessions. But, the cost of staying at Metrofulus was very high for a party of six plus a cat. Jemma almost choked when she saw the bills for their meals.

“Daisy, how did you pay for the food, the entrance fees and, and everything?” Jemma got to ask this. She was curious. But the Inhuman just shrugged like it was not a problem and indicated that the rest of them should just enjoy their time there. As if that would deter the team from bugging her for answers. It was more likely to make them extra curious.

“Come on. Seriously, boss. How?” Now it looked like all their attention was focused on Daisy.

“We do have some interesting things that we could sell like those gems we found. I exchanged some for money.” But the rest did not believe her.

“There is no way those could cover all of our expenses.”

Rolling her eyes, Daisy answered sheepishly. “I took the prince’s money card.”

“Money card? Like a credit or debit card?”

“I guess so.”

“When did you take it?”

“Let’s see. The first one was at the palace.”

“How did you even manage to do that? We were running all the time!”

“There was this one room we blasted through; there were a lot of valuables there.”

“And you helped yourself to some of them.” The Inhuman just grinned. “And one of those things was the card.” Piper said dryly but Daisy just grinned wider.

Jemma suspected that her friend must have taken some other things as well. She was sort of an accomplished pickpocket master before she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. Jemma only knew this during one of the missions they’d gone together where Daisy demonstrated her skills in that department. When she recalled the first time she came aboard the Bus, it all made sense. Daisy did have Mr. Peterson’s ID card with her and the biochemist was sure that he didn’t give it to Daisy. So, she believed that the Inhuman might have grabbed some valuables at the palace. How and where she stashed them, Jemma had no idea. That suit was tight.

“Hold on. The first one? There’s another?”

“Ah…one of them was on that moon we took shelter on. You do remember that Piper and I sneaked into his spaceship, right?” Jemma nodded. She recalled how easy it was to do that thanks to Lexus’ power.

“You said one of them…there are more?” Daisy just smiled lopsidedly, scratching her neck in a sheepish manner.

“I found some at their bases that we destroyed. Well, the expenses here are very expensive. How do you think I pay for all that? I simply used more cards. Though let me tell you this – the prince had a lot on each one of them. So, moneywise, we’re covered. For now.”

Well, Jemma couldn’t really scold her for stealing especially if it was essential to their survival. Besides, the prince was a douche anyway.

And so, they enjoyed themselves trying various delicacies and browsing the space-advanced merchandises as well as products they could keep as mementos. They had a good time enjoying what the city got to offer. They even went to an arcade where they played games and took part in lucky draws.

It looked like Lady Luck was on their side that day. They won so many tickets and tokens at the arcade that they exchanged them with a number of stuff. Daisy even won a mysterious present that none of them knew what it was because she decided not to open it right there when her stomach rumbled.

After dinner, they decided to hit an establishment that looked like a bar. It was at that place that they got a clue on someone who may have the information they need to find Fitz. This person knew what happened to a spaceship the Confederacy attacked – that might be Fitz's spaceship. Unfortunately, they missed him. However, according to the bartender, this person always came at the same time every day and spent an hour there before he left.

Jemma was hopeful that this person would lead them to Fitz. Therefore, they decided to go back to the Zephyr for the night (they found out that the city had artificial day and night) and would go to the bar again the next day.

~~~~####~~~~

**_A day ago_ **

They were out for lunch at a restaurant when Daisy felt eyes on them. Glancing from the tail of her eyes, she didn’t see anyone openly watching them. But she could sense a peculiar rhythm of a heartbeat that did not belong there. The other patrons in the restaurant had resting heartbeats the way a person did when enjoying good food. This particular one was cautious and not calm at all. Honing on to the direction it came from, Daisy finally saw their watcher.

The person looked humanoid and resembled human with a feathered crest atop his head in lieu of hair, which was bushy on both sides and very flat on the top. It was a weird hairstyle. He was probably an alien with birdlike features.

‘What an amateur. He should at least disguise himself especially with that eye catching hairstyle.’

Daisy was pondering this when she saw another similar alien entered the restaurant unobtrusively, trying to be casual but she could see that he was also watching them. This one was wearing short sleeves, so Daisy could see that on his forearms, there were some vestigial feathers as though their species used to have feathered wings like birds. That must have been over millions of years of evolution to have them looked humanoid now.

She was snapped out of her musings when Piper nudged her foot and tilted her head subtly toward the two men. It seemed that Piper recognized that probable threat too. Silently communicating their course of action, they signaled Davis to the situation and to keep their eyes open. They were not going to dampen the others’ excitement in exploring the city. Hence the decision to keep it quiet for now but stayed alert for unforeseen incidents.

After lunch, they played games again - gambling was more likely, but they didn’t really know that because they believed those were just arcade games. They also played for luck with lucky draws and arcade games that gave out coupons they could trade with prizes or tokens; and they got a lot of prizes. Little did they know, one of the prizes they won was very valuable and someone wanted it. It was a long while before they realized that the arcade was only a small part of a larger casino.

All in all, they were enjoying themselves by winning at the arcade, and then at the casino, mostly because the Inhumans were misusing their powers and Simmons used scientific calculations to make sure they won. Piper and Davis mostly observed the crowd and relayed information to them while keeping their tails in their periphery. Daisy even recruited the flerken to join in one of their cheats by distracting other players or making things disappeared. Basically, they were on some sort of a mission – winning their opponents’ money by any means necessary – they did need to top up on the money cards they’d been using at the luxurious cosmos city.

By now, they team was too absorbed in their glory that they forgot about their shadows. It was only after they decided to leave the building did Daisy, Piper and Davis remember and frantically looking around until they spotted their stalkers.

Throughout the day, they went to several places and the men were still following them. They went into a boutique; she saw one of their stalkers followed inside. They entered a craft store – both men followed suit. They even visited a museum. Still, they were being tailed. At one point, Davis suggested a haunted house. Daisy agreed wholeheartedly. It was time to deal with this problem as she was starting to get a headache and feeling very tired and uncomfortable.

She excused herself to the loo, but in actuality, she was luring the aliens to follow her. At one dark corner near the entrance of the haunted house, she confronted them and interrogated them ‘convincingly’ on their motive though it took quite some time and a few brushes of knuckles. Those two were pretty strong; they even caused her to break a sweat. She found out that they were just small fry paid to keep an eye on them. When she couldn’t extract any more information, she used icer on them and returned to her friends, totally failing to see or even sense that she had a witness.

Piper realized that something was different with Daisy. Her face was a bit pale and her nose was a bit red. ‘Probably because it was getting cold outside there or was it a bruise or blood? What on earth just happened?’

Realizing that Piper was eyeing her curiously, she shook her head and mouthed ‘later’. But she could see from the tail of her eyes that the agent looked worried.

Later that evening, they went to the bar to talk with their would-be informer. Alas, it was not in their luck. They missed him by only a few minutes. Feeling dejected, they returned to the Zephyr and vowed to arrive earlier at the bar the next time.

~~~~####~~~~

**_30 minutes ago_ **

They just finished breakfast when the alarm sounded. Someone just deactivated the security system of the Zephyr from outside. Nobody ever managed to hack or override Daisy’s program before. They didn’t even get the chance to react when a group of men rushed in and held them at gunpoint.

Eyes wide and heart beating faster, panic was starting to take hold when she suddenly noticed Lexus and Magda were about to attack the intruders. ‘Right, these two have powers. We’ll be fine,’ she thought. Well, she thought wrong. Once the two struck, a device was slapped on their wrists that rendered them powerless.

When all of them was cuffed and herded toward the cargo hold, the one – Jemma thought he must be the boss – came forward purposely. He looked a bit different from the others. Instead of hair, he had feathers sprouting in a triangular shape away from the face, one peak on the top of the head and one peak on each side slightly over the shoulder. The rest of his minions also had feathered crests atop their heads – not hair, but bushy on both sides and very flat on the top. They looked ridiculous but she guessed that was probably a species thing.

“Where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“The artifact.”

“What artifact?”

“The one in your possession.”

“I don’t recall any artifact on our ship.”

“You got it at the arcade.”

Okay. So, they were looking for something they recently got here at Metrofulus. But still, she had no idea what that was.

“We got so many things at the arcade. Which one are you talking about?”

“One of you won it two days ago – the mysterious prize in the lucky draw.”

Oh, so that was what they were looking for. The team didn’t even know what that thing was. Daisy never revealed the mysterious prize she won on the first day they arrived here. All they knew was it was a black box with an intricate design stenciled on it.

“Where is it? Hand it over to us and we’ll let you go unharmed.”

There was no way the team believed him. But she believed that it was time to end this. They couldn’t have this confrontation on the Zephyr lest they damaged it. Now would be the perfect time for Daisy to trounce these thugs and she was going to say exactly that to her; except that that was the moment Jemma realized that her friend was nowhere to be found. She recalled that the Inhuman was not at breakfast either.

While their intruders were searching for the artifact, Jemma turned her head slightly toward Piper and mouthed ‘ _where is Daisy_?’ She got ‘ _I don’t know. Still asleep maybe_ ’ in return. Then her fellow agent added that Daisy was a bit off last night and she rarely slept in nowadays. Now, that made the biochemist worried. She just hoped that her friend realized their current situation and got something up her sleeves to deal with this.

However, they might just not make it because the boss man was getting very impatient and threatened to shoot them. He was waving his weapon while shouting angrily at the team. At one point, Jemma thought that this was it. She was going to die before seeing Fitz again and their friends and family back on earth would never know of their demise. Luckily for them, he did not get to pull the trigger when one of his underlings was suddenly hurled in his direction and knocked him down. This was followed by more feathered heads flung out from inside the Zephyr.

~~~~####~~~~

“Daisy.” A collective breath of relief left their mouths.

“Hey guys. I came out for breakfast and look what I found? A bunch of feathers!” She said irritatingly while throwing a few punches and kicks along the way, introducing the aliens with some doses of her power and flipping an unsuspecting intruder that blocked her path toward the hostages; pushing the aliens nearer to the lower part of the ramp. She had the satisfaction of trouncing the man with the most ridiculous hairstyle.

“Who the heck are you?”

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking that question? You’re on my ship, pal.”

“You have something that belongs to me.”

“Oh really?” So, you just come up here and hold my crew hostage. Brilliant. But I don’t tolerate that.”

“I just want it back.”

Daisy just looked at the boss of the mob uninterestingly as though he was a small insignificant insect. It only made him angry that he pointed his gun at her and was about to shoot when Daisy coughed. Within seconds, all weapons disintegrated. They all stared at her in shock.

“Since when can you do that?” Davis inquired in amazement.

“Just now.” She answered casually. ‘Well, that’s something new. Pretty sure it won’t last.’

She was still facing their enemy. The boss was furious. He ordered his henchmen to attack Daisy when she sneezed, and a powerful shockwave was released, sending all intruders flying out of the Zephyr. It happened a few times. Some of the aliens were slammed into trees and other stationary object right out of the vessel and knocked out. The Z1’s crew members even heard some bones cracked. That display of power rendered her team speechless. Daisy did not waste time; once all intruders were down, she turned to her team and worked on their restraints, asking if they were okay.

“That was fantastic, but are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Simmons.”

“Oh no, you’re not. You coughed and sneezed. Your eyes and nose are red, your face is pale.” She put the back of her hand on Daisy’s forehead and immediately retreated. It was really warm and Jemma couldn’t even imagine how the Inhuman was still standing with such a high temperature. She could even feel the heat just by standing next to the woman. She recalled Daisy’s disposition for the past few days – she moved slower, ate less than usual and less perky. Now that Jemma eyed her critically, she did look a bit under the weather.

“You have a fever and an onset of a flu. Even your voice sounds different.”

“Simmons, I’m f-achoo!” She sneezed again and this time sent the team flying towards the containment module.

“I’m sorry, guys!” she ran to help them only to sway after a few steps. She felt dizzy and was starting to have a headache. When it became too much, she groaned and sat down while holding her head – and they felt the ground rumbled. Uh oh, that was not good. She saw Simmons and Magda hastily scrambled toward her.

The rest of the team stood and decided to lock the intruders in the containment module for questioning later. They couldn’t just up and leave because they still had to meet the man who could help in their quest of finding Fitz.

Daisy's power was uncontrollable. Being that sick messed with her control. She caused the whole city to shake and they were afraid that she’d tear it apart. So, she decided to stay in the containment module, but the Zephyr still shook a bit; and they would hold the alien in the cargo hold for interrogation. However, before they could do anything, they got visitors.

Apparently, the shake and the mountain of aliens sprawling unconscious near the Zephyr got the attention of the authority. So, they were all taken into custody. Daisy managed to restore the vessel’s security feature seconds before the door to the module was opened.

At the precinct, they were interrogated and Daisy showed them the footage of what happened (she hacked her own program and mirrored the video to the man in charge). Obviously, their intruders only disabled the locking mechanism to the ramp, so the cameras were still working. Satisfied with their evidence, the authority released them.

Later, they found out that the group that broke into the Zephyr was on the list of wanted criminals on their own home planet and a few others. In other words, they were fugitives who roamed the space with devious agenda and their vessel was full of weapons and stolen items.

_~~~~####~~~~_

After everything cooled down and they were allowed to leave the precinct, the team went straight to the bar. It was near the time their elusive would-be informer was said to be there. The bartender greeted them with a smile and good news. It looked like Lady Luck hadn’t left them yet. They met the person who actually did have a clue about someone who knew what happened to Fitz's spaceship and grilled him for information.

The person who they got the information on Fitz was yet another surprise –an Inhuman from Attilan, who happened to be Magda’s uncle, Ford. He scoured the space looking for the duo after he lost trace of their spaceship over a year ago. After a few moments given to the joy of a reunion between the Inhumans, the team interviewed him.

When the team inquired of his knowledge regarding the attack on Fitz’s ship, he told them that the ship was cut in half. Ford had an idea on how to go looking for the split vessel because he saw and examined one half of it. He was afraid that it might be Lexus and Magda’s spaceship. It did look quite similar.

He also found a manifest on it. He had been tracking it until he reached the city and was stranded because his ship malfunctioned badly that had him stuck there on Metrofulus for months. However, by now, he knew that it wasn’t Lexus and Magda’s ship.

Jemma’s face paled when she heard the ship was split. They feared that Fitz might be dead. But, they did not lose hope. They would not believe that their friends had met his demise, until they found Fitz’s body or concrete evidence that said otherwise.

Knowing that to have Ford onboard would be beneficial to their search, Daisy allowed Lexus and Magda to invite him along on their voyage. So, Lexus and Magda went with Ford to get his belonging while the agents prepared the Zephyr One for their next journey. Once all seven of them plus the cat were safely on board, they left the cosmos city of Metrofulus and headed toward one of the locations mentioned on the manifest Ford found.

~~~~####~~~~

**_A few days later_ **

Daisy was now no longer ill. Fearing her power would go off without her knowing it, she spent the time recuperating in the containment module from the bout of a terrible flu. Her only companion was the cat. It was quite a racket when the team couldn’t find the flerken since they left the city. But when Simmons checked on Daisy, she was welcomed by a hiss and a growl from the cat. It seemed like it was protecting Daisy.

They never thought the flerken would behave that way. Simmons even had a hard time getting near to Daisy to check her progress and to give her food and medicine. The cat stood there watching closely everything Simmons did, which if she was honest was quite unnerving. Once she was done, the flerken laid down next to Daisy after it nuzzled the Inhuman’s chin and licked her cheek; then it would look pointedly at her and the door. Simmons interpreted that as ‘You’ve checked, fed and gave her medicine. Now leave.’

Meanwhile, the team was puzzled as to where the artifact had gone to except Daisy. She seemed okay not knowing where it was which was suspicious because she was the one who always got her hands on interesting things/merchandise. Well, they reasoned that it was because she was sick and spent most of her time in the containment module with the flerken. The team searched the whole ship but found nothing.

Little did they know that Daisy totally knew where the artifact was. It was made clear when she addressed the flerken and it vomited the artifact out once they were far from Metrofulus.

“You knew that the cat has it.” The others gave her the evil eye, but she shrugged it off.

“I never said I don’t know what happened to it. And his name is Chewie.”

“You gave a name to the artifact? What’s so chewy about a black box?” Davis looked at his boss dubiously and saw that she was looking back pointedly at him. A thought came to him. ‘Did she just roll her eyes?’

“It’s not just a black box.”

“So you know what it is?”

“There is a manual inside the box. So, yeah, I know what it is.”

“And?”

“It’s not important at the moment.” She nudged the flerken and it swallowed the box again to the others’ surprised exclamation.

“Chewie, come here.” The team couldn’t believe the evidence of their eyes. The cat actually strutted toward Daisy and plopped itself comfortably on her lap. He even nudged Daisy’s hand to pet him.

“How do you make him listen to you?”

“What kind of name is Chewie?”

“Because he keeps chewing on my stuff. So, I guess the name fits. And he likes me.”

“You knew he swallowed the artifact and you didn’t say anything when we were searching the Zephyr for it.”

“I was in the containment module. I didn’t know you guys did that.”

Okay. She got a point there. So, they let it go.

Daisy, on the other hand was smiling internally because she knew absolutely everything that the team did while recuperating in the containment module. It was not that difficult. She just hacked the security footage on the Zephyr. She did it all the time. It was a piece of cake. Glancing at Ford, she gave him a subtle wink when he raised a knowing eyebrow at her. That Inhuman could actually sense what was on someone’s mind and in this case, he read Daisy’s clearly because she allowed him to. 

And so, they traversed the cosmos following the trail of breadcrumbs on Fitz’s fate. They were really glad to have gone to Metrofulus. There was no legit information that was available about it. The city was a legend in certain parts of the universe but not many had encountered it. Each story told was different. But from what they heard for the two days they were there, the city's citizens often ventured on their own adventures. They gathered and spread news, rumors and information that way.

They were among the lucky ones to ever set foot on it. And made name for themselves in catching a group of criminals wanted in several places, which catapulted their notoriety among the space community courtesy of the visitors and good citizens of the city who prided themselves in spreading stories. Theirs was one of their favorites – all because they were small weak-looking terran beating the crap out of a group of big and nasty guys with feathers as hair.

~~~~####~~~~

**_Metrofulus_ **

“Sir, you gotta see this.”

“What do you have there?” The Lieutenant looked at the tablet handed to him. He was clearly shocked at what he was reading. “Isn’t this the one who blasted them at the docking bay?” He pointed toward the prisoners in his lock up. They were waiting for the order to escort them to prison.

“Indeed.”

“But, nothing happened while she’s here except them.” His assistant indicated the lock up.

“She didn’t cause any trouble this time. Troubles found her.”

“And from the chatter among the visitors I heard at the bar, her team indirectly helped people when they caused troubles. See here, some of these are all hot spots for criminal activities. Most of the hits on her are from the Confederacy and San-i-taris. And we know how despicable they are. They called her the Space Menace. From what I found, only her face was clearly captured. Any visuals on her team were completely non-existent.”

“It means that they had those erased and let the chase centers on her. That’s a clever tactic. And we saw how easy she pulled the footage from their vessel using our _secret_ transmission.” He stressed the word ‘secret.’

“Sir, did you just admit that The Space Menace hacked our system?”

“I never said that.”

“…”

“The last part of this conversation never happened. Understood?”

“Yes sir.”

Once his assistant left, the lieutenant walked toward the lock up.

“You are an idiot.” The warden scoffed at his prisoner. “You just had to mess with them.”

“Who?”

“Quake, The Space Menace.”

His eyes bulged and face turned white. He heard of that name before. Ten days ago to be exact. He always checked the most wanted lists to see whether his name was on them or not and he saw one with that name. Just his luck to get his ass handed by a puny terran. Well, how was he supposed to know that that girl was Quake? She did not look like the picture he saw a few weeks ago. He kept on thinking about his fate and plotting his escape until it was time for him and his underlings to be sent to the prison.


	5. Progress

Daisy and Ford were playing chess at the lounge. The cat was lounging on the couch next to his favorite human, purring when she petted him. Davis and Piper were at the bridge running their weekly maintenance. Once in a while the two agents would look at the Inhumans and wondered who would win the game. It had been a long hour since they started the fourth set, with Daisy dominating the tally, though Ford did give her quite a challenge.

“So, you said you saw a manifest on the half that you found.” She moved one of her pawns.

“Yes, I do. That was what comforted me as it confirmed that the ship was not the one those two were on.”

“Yet, you went on to track the other half by using the manifest.”

He moved his knight piece and Daisy lost a pawn.

“Since that ship was split at the last coordinates Magda’s ship was known at, I was suspicious. I was afraid that they might have gotten involved in some way. Using the manifest was the only clue I had in my search.”

He waited for the young woman to make her move.

“What exactly did you see on it?”

“Things like manufacturers, specifications, and activity and maintenance logs.”

Daisy moved her queen and looked up at him.

“That’s a lot of information.”

“Indeed. Here, you can take a look at it.”

He handed Daisy the tablet that had a copy of the manifest and the woman dove straight into it. Scrolling up and down on those pages, wrinkling the bridge of her nose, she was totally immersed in her perusal. Once in a while, Ford could see her eyes stared at nothing as if her thought was far away. What could she be thinking that put such an expression on her face? It was not every day he met someone who could block his mind probe. At the same time, he was trying to find a way to beat her in chess. This girl was good but he believed that he could win this time around. He was brought out of his musings when she spoke to him.

“It didn’t record any cryochamber being used on board.”

“Probably to keep things off record.”

“Which place on this document you haven’t gone to?”

So, Ford told her the names of those places and the fact that they were heading toward one of them right now. He also told her about the places he had visited. He could see that the young woman was fascinated with his tales.

“Your turn.”

After three more turns, he was so confident in beating Daisy. The girl was waiting patiently for him to move his next piece. He moved his rook and took out her queen.

“Check.” He looked up and grinned at the woman. However, the smirk on her face unnerved him.

“Excellent move, Ford. Take out the queen and leave the king mostly unguarded but you know what?”

“What?”

“You gotta always have backups. “

She moved her bishop and grinned.

“Checkmate.”

That was a brilliant play. At Attilan, no one could beat him this easily and three times in a row too! Typically he would read his opponents’ mind to secure his wins. Not that he would admit the regularity of him doing that.

“You got me. Great game.”

And so they talk some more with Daisy asking more about Inhumans. Ford indulged her because it must have been suck not knowing your origin. He regaled her of Attilan – its history and current situation and the types of abilities they had.

~~~~####~~~~

“We’re approaching Trinawa.”

The Zephyr One was heading toward one of the places written on the manifest. After a few days of travel, they were about to land on a watery planet of Trinawa. Once they landed, they went straight to the only place that conducted spaceship maintenance in the area.

“That is O-2 oceans of Trinawa. This is O-1 oceans. You have to go to the other side of the planet.”

Well, it seemed that they landed on the wrong side of the planet. So, they flew to O-2 oceans and managed to talk to the manager of the maintenance company. According to him, the spaceship Fitz was on landed there to refuel, but that was before Enoch brought Fitz to space.

There was no other information gathered on the watery planet. So, they left Trinawa and headed to the rusted moons of Pyree. Among the seven moons, only three of them were inhabited. On the first moon, they found out that Enoch did a supply run there. They found that their friends did not even land on the second moon. However, they had a nice chat with the proprietor there about fuel that can be traced. That gave them the idea that someone could have tracked the ship and gave that information to whomever attacked it.

~~~~####~~~~

They landed on the last moon of Pyree that had a heavier gravity than earth. Obviously, they had a hard time moving around. Luckily, they had a collection of devices that could lessen the impact of the moon’s gravitational pull on their persons, though it could only be used for a limited time before it needed to be recharged. Nobody questioned the origin of those gadgets for they already knew how they came to be on the Zephyr. Apparently, there were some truths to the rumors about Quake and her crew.

Being able to move freely on the last Pyree was lucky enough. Unfortunately, they seemed to be facing a number of challenges there. Aside from the gravity, the atmosphere was also not in their favor. Therefore, they had to wear breathing masks all the time. This made them uncomfortable and they found it quite hard to do business when they have something covering their faces and carrying an oxygen tank the whole time.

They met with the one who handled the maintenance of Fitz’s ship as stated in the manifest. Trying to get information out of him was like shaping a large boulder with just a whetstone. Polite inquiry yielded no answer. Negotiation did not work. Sharing the reason as to why that information was essential to them also did nothing to further their search.

“I’m sorry. I can’t give you that information.”

“Why?”

“Customer confidentiality clause.”

An alien workshop that kept their clients’ information private. Excellent. It was not something you see on a daily basis even on earth. But this was not what they wanted to know right now. What they needed was the intel this workshop had that could help them in finding Fitz. The fact that things like customer confidentiality hindered their quest was maddening. Right. As if that would deter the team from acquiring it. This called for a more forward measure. They did in fact have a reputation to uphold.

Making sure that the workshop was occupied by having them did a minor maintenance on a quinjet on the Zephyr, the team got to work. Lexus opened a portal into the manager’s office where they housed a computer. Daisy dove straight to the computer in the office, searching for appropriate files that they needed. For a company that valued confidentiality, the workshop had a shoddy level of digital safety. The files could be accessed rather easily with no encryption to deter any probing attempts. They even labeled the folders for all to see. The only thing that proved to be challenging to Daisy was the language itself. Luckily, she had a translator device that she borrowed from Ford.

Meanwhile, Davis was keeping eyes on the progression of the maintenance. Simmons and Magda were lounging in the waiting area, scanning the customers and made small talk with them. Chewie was with them too, resigned in quietly taking the brunt of affections he did not want from other aliens there. Ford and Piper were with the manager, pretending to talk business as a ruse to keep him out of his office all the while hoping that Daisy got the job done faster.

In less than 10 minutes, Daisy was done and they congregated at the lounge, eagerly waiting for the service to finish. It took them close to an hour before they could leave.

~~~~####~~~~

“You have got to be kidding me.” Daisy groaned in annoyance.

“What?”

“Your 3 o’clock.”

“Oh, great. Prince Douchebag gracing the moon. Why is he here? Everywhere we go, he’ll be right behind us.”

“I have a bad feeling about this. Say Simmons, is there any chance that the prince’s fuel is traceable?”

The biochemist seemed to debate the probability of that. “It might be.”

“That is how easy for him to find us.” They pondered the likelihood of it as they did take a liberty to his fuel whenever the chance presented itself.

The prince apparently landed on the moon for a maintenance check. Probably due to the virus Daisy planted on his system. The team tried their very best hiding from him and his underlings. In fact, they managed to do that until the quinjet was done and were heading toward the Zephyr. Almost. The prince’s lieutenant recognized them and made a racket that shifted all focus on the team. And thus, another skirmish with the alien prince and his henchmen ensued.

The patrons and the workshop’s worker all fled the scene the moment the fight started. Mindful of the importance of making sure the workshop and everything in it was intact, they led the fight outside. They left Ford and Simmons in there to safeguard the Zephyr. The fight went on for quite some time.

Since they were wearing the gravity manipulator device, it was an easy feat for them to move around as compared to their opponents. So, they managed to knock most of them unconscious until they felt dragged down to the ground rather rudely. It turned out that the device had run out of juice. What a bugger and at such a moment too!

This was the second where everything slowed down. Their body felt like a ton heavier. Every punch or kick delivered was in slow motion. Even their movement was comically executed as well as their speech, which was also affected. This would surely cause them to use the oxygen supply faster. This was not good. They needed to finish the fight a lot sooner or risked asphyxiation.

With only two of his underlings left to fight, the prince was enraged and started shooting at them recklessly. Evading those was not easy when you had to deal with the sudden doubled weight on your person. One of the bullets almost grazed Daisy’s arm.

Daisy disassembled the weapons and sent a shockwave toward their opponents. Due to heavier gravity, the aliens flopped to the ground faster and harder. They also found it harder to get up, which the team took advantage of. Magda leaped through portals Lexus opened near the San-i-tarians and slammed the metal pole she transmuted into their heads, rendering them unconscious.

“Did that make you feel better?” Lexus asked Magda dryly.

“Absolutely.” She shrugged offhandedly.

“That will do. Good job guys.” Daisy signal Piper for zip ties as they were so not going to have the prince on their tail any time sooner.

The aftermath of the fight was not something they wanted to clean. Anyway, it was not their problem. What seemed to be their current problem was the threat from space. Apparently, the Zephyr read that an asteroid was moving rapidly toward the moon, and if their calculation was correct, it would reach the moon in matter of minutes. The impact would not be good. In fact, they would be toast.

Joined by Ford and Simmons, they tried to come up with a solution. Leaving was a sound option but that would leave the moon to the mercy of the asteroid. The fact that it could probably obliterate the moon due to its massive size did not sit well with the team. Besides, it was moving too fast to afford them enough time to prep and lift the Zephyr.

Looking up, they could see a gigantic flaming ball in the atmosphere.

“Can’t you use your power to open a portal so that the rock goes back to space?”

“I don’t know if I’m capable of creating such a huge portal.”

“But you could try. There’s no better time to do that than now.”

“Okay. Here goes.”

Lexus concentrated in opening the largest portal in his life far above their heads and the asteroid went straight into it.

“We did it!”

“Where did you send it?”

“Space.”

“Isn’t that the same rock?”

Everyone tilted their heads up and swore. It actually went up far into space, only to turn its trajectory back toward the moon.

“How the hell did it come back down?” They were baffled.

“Gravity. We didn’t think about that. The gravitational pull of this moon guarantees it to come back down here.”

“And I can’t open a larger portal that can send it further from the moon.”

“You have to do that again until we can find a solution.”

“I’ll try but I don’t know how many times I could do it. That portal alone was pretty exhausting.”

“Can’t you blow it up, Daisy?”

“It’s too big and it moves too fast. I can’t get a hang on its frequency long enough.”

“The cat. He can swallow the rock.” Simmons picked up Chewie and faced it forward toward the incoming asteroid. The cat growled and tried to swipe his claws at the scientist.

“No Simmons! What are you thinking? Chewie cannot swallow something that big and disastrous.” Daisy stepped in front of Simmons and snatched the flerken from her, petting and talking to it softly, trying to calm him down. She continued her ministration until the cat purred and lied bonelessly in her arms.

“Then, what do we do? There’s no way we could lift the Zephyr before the rock slam the moon.”

Daisy looked up and studied each member of her team.

“Lexus, continue opening portals whenever the rock comes too near to the surface.” Daisy instructed the Inhuman. He obeyed immediately. It was better to follow the captain’s order in times like this. He trusted Daisy to come up with something.

She knew what Chewie really was and what the flerken could do. Ford shared his knowledge on that species during one of their chess duels. No matter how much the cat can swallow, the asteroid was just too impossible for him not to mention the effects it could cause. However, there was something the cat swallowed that could be helpful in their situation. So, Daisy kissed the cat’s head and whispered softly in his ear.

The team was mesmerized with what happened in front of their eyes. The cat tilted his head and heeded his favorite human’s request. He opened his mouth and spat out a black box. Then, he licked it clean and shoved it to Daisy.

“Isn’t that the mystery prize you won at Metrofulus?”

“The one and only.” She opened the box and threw the manual inside toward Ford. Then, she carefully lifted the object inside, twisted it a bit and pushed some minuscule buttons on one side of the device.

“This is a Nega-bomb.” Ford expressed in awe.

“Yep. A couple of lower-yield Nega-Bombs that can be used to destroy planets and small worlds.”

“No wonder those pirates wanted this back then.”

“Do you know how to use it?”

“I read the manual.”

“This is alien writing. You know how to read this?”

“It’s an easy enough language.” She wasn’t going to tell them that the manual came in video and audio versions too. Then, she turned to Lexus. “Now Lexus, I need you to open another large portal so that we can send the rock further than before. Then, I’m gonna bury this device in it.”

So they set to do as Daisy instructed. Before the asteroid reached the portal, aided by a boost of her power, Daisy jumped high and buried the bomb deep in one of the cracks on the rock. It was not an easy thing to do as it was on fire every time it entered the moon’s atmosphere, not to mention the pull of the gravity on her person.

Once it went through the portal and appeared further in space, Lexus closed the portal and Daisy activated the detonator. They witnessed the burning rock burst into space dust. Some of those dusts fell down to the moon and Lexus opened another portal where it all fell into and returned to space where they stayed. Thus, the team managed to save themselves and the moon from being obliterated by a giant asteroid.

~~~~####~~~~

They zip tied the prince and his henchmen, then, shoved them inside a cave they discovered near the workshop. They took the chance to raid the prince’s transportation. Daisy obviously was looking for more treasures and money cards. She turned at the hallway and came face to face with a very sturdy door that had a very complicated locking mechanism.

“Simmons. Come here a sec.”

“What is it?”

“Here, help me open this door.”

“What kind of door needs two people to open?”

“The kind that would prevent someone who is definitely not the owner from opening it.”

“What do you think he has in that room?”

“No idea, but this much security might lead to something valuable.”

After a few moments of fiddling with the security panel and grunting, huffing and pushing, the door was finally opened. The girls found their jaws dropped and eyes wide opened with what they saw behind that door. Simmons waited for no time; she went straight inside and rubbed her hands while looking around the room with greedy eyes.

“Erm…Simmons?”

“What?”

“Your Pirate is showing up.”

“Oh. But…” Simmons sent her a look that conveyed _‘Are you telling me that yours not?’_

“Ok.” She conceded.

They found a room full of treasures on the ship and of course they took it upon themselves to procure a few. Who knew when they would need to use them. With their records, sooner was more likely than later.

When they returned to the bridge, Daisy sought Ford out.

“What do you know about traceable fuels?”

“Some despicable merchants sell those as trackers. Any vessels refuel with that usually find themselves in tricky situations. Besides, they can also retrieve data from the ships and that information is probably sold to anyone who’s willing to pay for it.”

“Does this name sound familiar to you?”

Ford looked at the tablet and nodded.

“Back on the second Pyree moon, the proprietor mentioned that some merchants from this planet sell traceable fuels.”

“We should go there then.”

“Yes, but I also want to check the last name on the manifest.”

“What do you propose we do?”

“I have an idea.”

They came to a decision to strip the prince’s flagship of any trackers and commandeered it. Since they were not that inhumane, they left behind a smaller spacecraft stored in its cargo hold along with some tools and supplies for the San-i-tarisians to survive.

Ford gave them a communication device so that they could exchange whatever intel they may find. The Inhumans also extended an invitation to visit Attilan anytime they like. With a promise to reconnect near earth in one year, they left the rusted moons of Pyree, heading toward two different destinations.

~~~~####~~~~

The Zephyr One was back traversing the vacuum of space with only four crewmembers plus the cat. They had an intel regarding the merchants who sold traceable fuels. After confirming the coordinates of their next destination with Ford, they part ways. The Inhumans would head to the last place stated in the manifest they had yet to go while the team on Z1 would visit the place that was rumored to sell traceable fuel near the location Fitz’s spaceship was attacked by the Confederacy. Daisy had a hunch that they should follow this lead.

“Where to, boss?”

She breathed in deeply before exhaling slowly. Eyes determined and voice firm, she said only one word.

“D’Rillian.”

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where their journey leads to the first space scene in season 6 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 
> 
> O-2 Oceans of Trinawa and rusted moons of Pyree were actually mentioned on Episode 1 in Season 6.
> 
> Nega-bombs do exist in the Marvel Universe.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I did writing it. 
> 
> I have also written a few more chapters of the team’s adventures in space set to take place after they deal with everything in season 7. Stay tune for our heroes’ next adventure. ;D


End file.
